Sigh... Here it feels anything but spring-like. Last week, when I arrived home after my holiday, I had to shovel 60-70cm of snow off of my car. The world around here is very, very white.
We've got our fair share of volcanos in the area. Hot spring public bathes are easily found, including a famous one about 20km from where I live called Tokachigawa Onsen.
We've had a few eruptions in Hokkaido in recent history...
Fortunately (or unfortunately), I'm not near anything that has been designated a hazard zone. I did go and visit the site at Toya - it was slightly surreal to see buildings and cars half-covered in hardened lava.
Although I've been here a year and a half, I still haven't gotten used to the earthquakes.
I am also still amazed me that, in winter, they use thermal energy to heat the hilly roads and melt the ice. Sounds good, in theory, but they fail to have a method to get rid of all the melted water at the bottom of the hills, resulting in much traffic craziness.
I wish people here would use thermal energy to heat their houses - it is such a cheap and effective form of energy. Unfortunately, I haven't encountered much central heating, nor insulation so maybe a thermally heated home is out of the picture. (Houses in Hokkaido tend to be built like they are on Honshu where it is generally warm and humidity is a problem.)
I've never visited the vicinity of any recently-active volcanism... I'm a bit envious ;-). What's the magnitude of the largest earthquakes that you've felt? Those I've experienced have been typically M = 4-5.5, except for Loma Prieta in 1989.
It is hard to believe that they heat roads, but not houses... it must be a cultural architectural convention. Style or tradition over efficiency? Without central heating, how are most houses heated? Do they still use small open-flame heaters?
You know, I can't accurately tell you what the measurement of the worst earthquake I've experienced, although they always broadcast it on the TV soon after it occurs. Usually it's just gentle rocking. The effects of the earthquakes are magnified slightly because my apartment is located on the 3rd floor. Looking at Mercalli's scale, I would probably say it was 4-4.5.
As for the lack of central heating here, it's due to tradition. Things are built a certain way and that's just they way it is. You ask a farm why he burns areas around his crop and he'll tell you that it's what his father did. Roads are built narrowly in Hokkaido, even though we have the space for wider roads, because that's the way they are built in the south. I've got a ventalation hole in my wall, literally a 20cm x 30cm hole to outside, because you need that in for the humidity (which Hokkaido doesn't have but the south does). They don't use insulation because of the "humidity."
Things are slowly changing. There are immigrants here building "Canadian-style" homes with insulation and central heating. People do tend to oppose change here, but that happens all over the world.
Public buildings do tend to have central heating. My school has all the classrooms heated, although the hallways generally aren't. I was just speaking to one friend who says that he believes his school, built within the last 10 years, actually has insulation.
Thanks for sharing that picture! FWIW, in the Celtic/Pagan calendar, Feb 1 is the holiday of "first planting," and the time at which the lengthening days first become noticable (even in Britain, which is NOT a mediterranian climate!). Depending on the weather, I've sometimes seen the plum trees bloom by now, though usually they're in full flower closer to Presidents' Day.
The ornamental pears near here (Cuesta Park) were in full blossom last week and actually have now lost most of their petals. The iris in my photo seems to have rushed to blossom... none of its sibling bulbs (I did a massive division last summer) have followed its lead, as yet.
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-19 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-20 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-20 10:22 pm (UTC)We've had a few eruptions in Hokkaido in recent history...
Komagatake volcano - erupted March 5, 1996
Toka Lake - Mount Usu - erupted in 1977 and 2000. Parts of the town and roads around there are still waiting to be uncovered.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-21 09:22 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-01-21 10:18 pm (UTC)Although I've been here a year and a half, I still haven't gotten used to the earthquakes.
I am also still amazed me that, in winter, they use thermal energy to heat the hilly roads and melt the ice. Sounds good, in theory, but they fail to have a method to get rid of all the melted water at the bottom of the hills, resulting in much traffic craziness.
I wish people here would use thermal energy to heat their houses - it is such a cheap and effective form of energy. Unfortunately, I haven't encountered much central heating, nor insulation so maybe a thermally heated home is out of the picture. (Houses in Hokkaido tend to be built like they are on Honshu where it is generally warm and humidity is a problem.)
no subject
Date: 2003-01-23 02:55 am (UTC)It is hard to believe that they heat roads, but not houses... it must be a cultural architectural convention. Style or tradition over efficiency? Without central heating, how are most houses heated? Do they still use small open-flame heaters?
no subject
Date: 2003-01-23 04:36 am (UTC)As for the lack of central heating here, it's due to tradition. Things are built a certain way and that's just they way it is. You ask a farm why he burns areas around his crop and he'll tell you that it's what his father did. Roads are built narrowly in Hokkaido, even though we have the space for wider roads, because that's the way they are built in the south. I've got a ventalation hole in my wall, literally a 20cm x 30cm hole to outside, because you need that in for the humidity (which Hokkaido doesn't have but the south does). They don't use insulation because of the "humidity."
Things are slowly changing. There are immigrants here building "Canadian-style" homes with insulation and central heating. People do tend to oppose change here, but that happens all over the world.
Public buildings do tend to have central heating. My school has all the classrooms heated, although the hallways generally aren't. I was just speaking to one friend who says that he believes his school, built within the last 10 years, actually has insulation.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-20 12:03 pm (UTC)So yes, Celebrate Spring! Yay!
no subject
Date: 2003-01-20 12:08 pm (UTC)The ornamental pears near here (Cuesta Park) were in full blossom last week and actually have now lost most of their petals. The iris in my photo seems to have rushed to blossom... none of its sibling bulbs (I did a massive division last summer) have followed its lead, as yet.